6-28-13

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Awesome news: Charming was adopted last night! He’s been adopted by Cydney’s sister (Cydney is another Challenger’s House foster mom), so he’s staying “in the family”! Yay, Charming!!!

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Question, why does Jareth appear to have a shaved spot on his tummy?

They tattoo the boys as well as the girls, so they shave a small spot on their tummies for the tattoo. Yes, it’s usually obvious whether a male cat has been neutered or not, but it’s better to have the tattoo to remove all doubt, I think.

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Out of curiosity, how often do you have to deal with “presents” (in the form of dead varmints or birds) from the outside cats? Do they bring them to you at your doorstep or mercifully keep them away from the house?

Matthew, what an appropriately timed question! I got back from the grocery store to find a teeny tiny organ (a lung, I think) on the side stoop. Maxi and Newt have learned that presents are not required, but Stefan hasn’t gotten the hint yet. I’ve found mice and moles on the side stoop 2-3 times a week for the past few weeks.

I posted that answer (in the comments) the day Matthew asked it, but I just have to add here that there’s some sort of tiny organ – I think it’s a lung – on the side stoop at this moment. I’m ignoring it in hopes that it will go away.

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I missed Stefan–when did he arrive?

I’m cutting and pasting from my response on June 7th; perhaps one day I’ll get around to making him his own permanent resident page!

We first saw Stefan back in, oh – sometime last Fall, I guess. We didn’t see him in person, we just happened to catch him on the gamecam a few times when I set it out to see who was showing up at the feeding station. Then we saw him in person in February. It’s been a very slow process, but Fred finally befriended Stefan, and last week he was able to grab him and put him in a cage overnight until we got him to the vet for an exam and neutering and his shots.

Fred was SURE that Stefan was going to be positive for Feline Leukemia, but his Combo test came back clear. He had worms in a bad way, but no fleas or ear mites since we had treated him for fleas and ticks a few weeks previously.

So I guess we’re adding him to our outdoor cat population. I would have liked to perhaps tame him and have him adopted out, but he’s really half feral. He shows up a couple of times a day to eat and hang out on the side porch. Now that he’s neutered, perhaps he’ll stop SPRAYING (if there’s anything that smells nastier than unneutered male cat spray, I don’t want to know about it. GAH.) Maxi has no problems with him, but Newt would like him to GO AWAY NOW, PLZ.

I have no idea where he came from. The vet tech guessed him to be 1 – 2 years old. That actually puts him in the right age to be related to Stompers. And he looks a LOT like Coltrane. I have no idea if he actually has owners around here somewhere, but he was skin and bones and loaded down with worms. Hopefully he’ll gain a little weight.

So, that’s the story on Stefan, who has lately started to become known as Stefonzie (you can blame Fred for that.)

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Does Khaleesi make the comforting mama trill at her kittens?

She does, from time to time. In fact, I was hanging out with them yesterday morning and Khaleesi came into the room (from the closet), reclined on the floor, and trilled at them. Scorch and Ember immediately ran over to her and started nursing. So I guess THEY might be ready to go without nursing, but Khaleesi doesn’t seem to be!

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Robyn, didn’t you and Fred take to calling one of the orange brothers who took a while to find a family — and then ended up with the ideal one — Lunk?

YES! How on Earth did that slip my mind?!

Kennebec, who was actually with us at this time last year, was returned to Challenger’s House at the beginning of the year, along with his sister, Mercury. They stayed here with us for a while, and Kennebec had turned into such a hunk of a mancat that we started calling him “Lunk.” Good ol’ Lunk!

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Speaking of boxes have you seen this – I can just picture your kitties playing whack a cat with a similar one.

YouTube link.

Ha – that is SO cute (and SO something you’d see around here!)

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Do you have to clean up after the kittens because they have no mum to clean them up after potty time?

Yes, I get to potty them every time I feed them, by rubbing their back ends with pieces of paper towel. I used to potty them before feeding them, but they get pretty wiggly and frantic when they’re hungry, so I reversed that and it works out pretty well. It’s actually not so bad – I know that this time doesn’t last all that long, and in a few more weeks they’ll be happy to start using the litterbox themselves.

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Do the Starks make biscuits while they are taking a bottle?

No, they sure don’t. They usually either sit with their paws neatly folded, rest their paws on my hand, or (if they’re really hungry), hug the bottle. But no kneading!

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Robyn – where in the world do you find nipples that small? I’ve never been able to track them down and end up using syringes for my bottle babies.

I got them in the Pet Ag Nursing Kit. I’ve tried several different kinds of nipples, but if they’re going to drink from the bottles, those are the nipples they prefer.

(Just a note – the instructions on the package for those nipples say to poke a hole in the end of the nipples with a needle. That makes the hole WAY too small, so what I do is cut an X in the end, which works really well.)

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So I’ve recently dived into the whole “Game of Thrones” thing with both feet. I’m reading the books, and since we don’t have HBO, the DVDs of the first two seasons are in our Netflix queue. I was looking through the IMDB pictures of the series, and stills from the show are interspersed with photos from promotional events, showing the actors in regular street clothes. One notable absence is Jack Gleeson, the young man who plays Joffrey. I wonder why he doesn’t come to these events? Is he afraid someone would punch him in the face?

He certainly has a face that begs to be punched, doesn’t he? But I read an interview recently wherein he swears that no one is ever mean to him on the street. On the other hand, Lena Headey has said that people are very rude to her on the street sometimes, so I ask you: is that fair? I think not!

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So very glad Susan got the fourth kitten in that bunch – which one was the fourth?

Hodor was the fourth one. I imagine that he made himself known to the woman (who hadn’t been able to find him) through sheer lung power!

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Seriously, what would you call Scorcha’s fur coloring?

I call it buff – and Oldcat said: It’s a dilute red or orange. Also called creme, especially when in a dilute tortie lady which is a “blue-creme” tortie.

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You’ve probably already heard of Hamilton the hipster cat, ’cause he seems to be making the rounds of the interwebs, but I thought I’d post this just in case you hadn’t, because he reminds me very much of Puff (which is a very good thing!).

I’d seen his picture, but didn’t know his name. I love not only that he has a mustache, but that it turns up on both sides! 🙂

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I would like to submit this question to the Fount of all Kitten Knowledge that is your readers. At what age do you think it’s appropriate for a kitten to be eating hard kibble? My Black Jack is about 3 months old, the same age as the Royals, and he just will not eat kibble. When I put down baby kibble for him, the adult cats love it and gobble it up, and he turns up his nose at it. He only wants canned food.

He’s definitely old enough to be eating kibble at 3 months old. Some cats just prefer canned to kibble (or vice versa, in rare cases), but I’ve always been lucky that my fosters will eat both. I don’t have any suggestions on how to get him to eat kibble (once the kittens are about 4 weeks old I leave kibble out all the time, and they eventually try it and eat it okay), but if anyone has suggestions on this, please feel free to share!

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Would you look at the noggin on Puff? He’s all head!

A big fan of the straws, this one.

“Unhand me, lady!” LOVE the Ruthie.

“Paws up, y’all!”

“Hey! Keep it quiet out there! A guy can’t hardly sleep with all that noise going on!”

Sleepy Ember would also like us to keep it down.

“Hallo, lady.”

“Hi, Mama! HI!”

Talk about your baleful look.

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“Hey, lady, make with the bottle!” (Or, more accurately: “Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor!”)

Sometimes after they eat, they just curl up and go right to sleep. Does the little stripey tail kill you dead, or what?

“Hey! Lookit my BELLY!”

Brandon rolling around, while Jon Snow supervises.

Brudderly tussling (such as it is, at this age.)

All of these kittens have a permanent case of bedhead.

Oh, the kitten belly. The kitten toes. The falling-over-in-slow-motion. I sure do love ’em at this age.

When I hold them up against me, they sniff and sniff and sniff some more. They’re trying to make sense of me, I guess.

Hangin’ out on the blankie.

Brandon gives me the skeptical eyes.

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“Hey, creepy paparazzi lady! I SEE you, taking pictures through the door! Can’t a gorgeous boy get any PEACE around here?”

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Previously
2012: “Dis my OTHER favorite place to sleep. A man’s gotta have options.”
2011: Pile of McMaos.
2010: If that’s not the epitome of abject misery, I don’t know what is.
2009: No entry.
2008: No entry.
2007: “So, I says to her, I says ‘Look. You want to pet me. I don’t want you to pet me. Your love burns my soul.”
2006: No entry.
2005: “Momma, your feet stink.”

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